Issue 318 | 31 August 2016

New tourism app, Visit Orlando, is using cognitive computing to connect with visitors. The app uses IBM Watson – a technology platform that unearths insights from large amounts of unstructured data using natural language processing and machine learning – so people can converse with the app in order to find what they need. Visitors can ask Watson “where’s the best coffee in Orlando” or “What should I see tomorrow?” and he’ll point them in the right direction. You can also play augmented reality games through the app while exploring the city allowing you to interact with different landmarks or play a selfie scavenger hunt. The app uses the Natural Language Classifier and AlchemyLanguage services from Watson, and will source its information from multiple travel guides such as TripAdvisor, to provide a personalised experience.

Flipboard, the app best known for offering users a selection of stories and articles from around the web, will be introducing programmatic and native ads to their app. Brands will also be able to target their users based on reading interests and demographics. The programmatic advertising abilities on the platform will be supported by Rubicon Project with the intention to offer video programmatic services at the end of the year.

Facebook is going vertical with its videos to be cool like Snapchat. Starting next month Facebook’s videos will no longer appear square in your newsfeed. As you scroll through your feed on your mobile, you’ll currently notice that when clips are autoplaying, they don’t take up the full screen until you engage with them. Facebook will be changing the specs to allow for nearly full-screen experiences during autoplay. Snapchat has been doing it for years so it must be cool right?

Not sure what art is? Dragan Ilicklike will show you what it looks like. In his latest artistic venture he has become a human paint brush being twirled and wiped up and down a large canvas to make the masterpiece. The robot was previously used in factory production and has been reprogrammed to follow a new route. It’s designed to imitate “both the repetitiveness involved in technological production, as well as representing a new stage of ritual or transgressive experiences of the author himself” according to Dragan. Whether or not the robotic arm is actually following his exact movements, we don’t really care it’s still pretty cool to watch:

When thinking of a perfume ad, it usually involves a pretty girl roaming a city spritzing her perfume delicately as she goes. Kenzo’s new ad is decidedly not your typical perfume ad. ‘My Mutant Brain’ is a short film directed by Spike Jones introducing their latest fragrance, Kenzo World. The film is vibrant and fast-paced with similar frantic movements to Sia’s Chandelier, which makes sense as Ryan Heffington choreographed them both. The branding is very subtle throughout the film and the only branded image you see is at the end where the dancer leaps through a flower eye in the shape of the Kenzo World bottle. Take a look at below:

There’s now a smoking ad targeted to millennials to hit them where it hurts. The ad features #Squadless smokers, preying on the generation’s ongoing FOMO concerns. The ad takes a light-hearted approach to what a loner you would be if you were #Squadless because you have less cash than your non-smoking friends. If the thought of being #Squadless isn’t annoying enough the rhyming Lonely Island-esque rap may just be enough to capture their attention through to the end. Watch it for yourself below: